29-30 August 2026

Leader: Paula Richardson

The original plan for this weekend was to go to Te Matawai Hut.

We met at the Poads Road carpark at 9am. We decided to go up the Gable End Track and make the call at Richards Knob whether to go on to Te Matawai Hut or cut across to Waiopehu Hut; depending on how we were all going and daylight conditions.

It was a muddy but not unpleasant walk up to Richards Knob. The rain held off and it wasn’t windy. Two signposts at the junction seemed very confusing: they said, “Te Matawai Hut 2 hours”, and “Waiopehu Hut 3 hours”. Very odd! However, as it was getting late and we didn’t have too much daylight left, we decided to make our way to Waiopehu Hut, which we reached 1.5 hours later!

We enjoyed a very pleasant night at Waiopehu Hut and had a nice walk out the next day down Waiopehu Ridge and back to the carpark.

All in all, a very pleasant late winter tramp in mud!

Those on the trip were:

Paula Richardson, Shauna Powell, Viv Roberts

Photos were not supplied for this report.